‘Comeback’: The gorgeous tribute Prince wrote after losing his only child

25 March 2025, 16:53

“I don’t think about being gone.”

That was Prince Rogers Nelson's response when being asked about death in a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

As we know now, this was just two years before his actual death in 2016, when the icon sadly passed away from an accidental fentanyl overdose.

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'The Purple One' was a once-in-a-generation innovator, and seldom fit the mould in terms of pop music throughout the decade he rose to superstardom.

He certainly didn't make his name as a sensitive singer or songwriter. But in one devastating instance, he turned to music to channel his pain.

In 1998, Prince wrote and released the song 'Comeback', in tribute to his late son - and only child - Amiir.

Two years before, Prince suffered the most unimaginable of losses, when his baby boy Amiir Gregory Nelson died just one week after his birth on October 16, 1996.

Amiir was Prince's first and only child, who he had with his then-wife Mayte García.

Garcia was formerly a backing dancer who Prince referred to as his "future wife", and his prediction came true after the pair married on Valentine's Day in 1996.

Soon after Garcia fell pregnant, with the couple expecting to complete their family within the year.

Tragically, Amiir suffered from a rare genetic disorder called Pfeiffer syndrome, and would only live for a week.

Prince was notoriously private, and went into lockdown after Amiir's death, protecting his wife from the increasing press attention.

So, the first glimpse of emotion his fans got after was when Prince put pen to paper on a heart-wrenching song he dedicated to his son.

Comeback

'Comeback' featured on Prince's 1998 album The Truth, an acoustic album made up of largely emotive, introspective material.

The album's penultimate track was 'Comeback' - both the briefest song at roughly two minutes but also the most devastating.

It saw the 'Purple Rain' singer wade through the emotional wreckage left by the loss of his boy, and delved into the artist's grief that he kept hidden from the public eye.

Naturally, the lyrics describe the experience of losing someone. But they also hint at Prince's belief that death is not the end.

"If you ever lose someone dear to you," he beautifully laments, "never say the words ‘they’re gone’. They’ll come back."

The song meant so much to Prince, he chose to have it played at his funeral. It was the only song that was played during the service.

Shook to the core by their shared sadness, Prince and Mayte's relationship didn't last, eventually divorcing in 2000.

But in an open letter she penned in the year after Prince's passing, Garcia recalled hearing 'Comeback' for the very first time.

"My heart fell," she wrote. "The beauty and power of the song deeply moved me but at the time, it was too raw and for me, too soon.

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"Writing the song allowed him to grieve about Amiir in a way that was difficult for him to do in person, even with me, his wife.

"But music was his refuge. It’s what he knew how to do - what he had to do - as an artist."

She further mourned her late ex-husband, shifting focus to him meeting his son in the afterlife: "He’s with our son now. I know they’re finally together."